“Our guys are going up the poles with 60 pounds of equipment, they’re wearing protective clothing, a lot of it is rubber, and it really keeps the heat within. So, they have to stay hydrated and it’s really a difficult process,” said DTE’s Scott Simons.

Simmons said trees knocked down by storms are making the restoration efforts more difficult.

“The tree damage has to be cleared before we make repairs. So, all the visuals of trees and downed limbs, all that has to be chopped up and taken away before our crews can even get to the powerline restoration,” he said.

At its peak, the outages affected about 325,000 DTE Energy customers and 104,000 Consumers Energy customers.

Friday’s forecast calls for temperatures to hit or surpass 100 degrees in several cities across the state, including Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing. The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning, now in effect until 8 p.m. Saturday. (More on the Heat Advisory, here).